The explosive growth of the Internet and wireless communication in recent years has led to a commensurate growth in the number of Internet users using “instant messaging” to communicate in real-time with other Internet users through wired and wireless means. “Instant messaging” (IM) refers to a service and software that enables a user to create a private electronic “chat” over the Internet, or other suitable network, in order to communicate in real-time with another user. Wireless mobile communication has also experienced explosive growth as cellular telephones and other wireless devices and related services have become less expensive for the consumer. Increasingly, service providers of cellular telephones and other portable wireless devices have supplied services and devices to provide wireless Internet access. One such popular device is the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) which is a small, hand-held computer device used to write notes, to maintain an appointment calendar and an address book. Services such as instant messaging, once available only to wired Internet users in their homes and offices, have become available for users of such wireless devices allowing instant messaging communication in real-time even while mobile.
In order to facilitate communication with other instant messaging users, instant messaging service providers and instant messaging software typically provide the capability for a user to maintain a private address list of other instant messaging users. This address list is essentially a list of contacts stored in an electronic address book. Known instant messaging services typically provides features that alert an instant messaging user to the status of users who appear on the address list. Such status information is commonly referred to as “presence” or “presence information”. Presence commonly refers to information about the state of an instant messaging user, for instance, whether the user is present and available to receive instant messages. If an instant messaging user is not available for instant messaging (e.g. offline) then known instant messaging services provide the capability for other instant messaging users to send a text message to the unavailable user. Systems provided by such services may also provide the capability for an instant messaging user to manually input other information as part of the presence information and make it available to other users. The capability to manually designate presence information in order to enable or disable (e.g. “busy”) receipt of instant messages or other data, may also be provided.
A drawback associated with known methods and systems for instant messaging is that presence information is not updated instantly with location information. Location information includes information about where the instant messaging user is situated. This information may be useful for a user who wants to provide information about the user's current location to other users. A feature to show a user's location (e.g. for a mobile user) as part of their presence information is typically not provided or requires cumbersome manual input. PDA wireless devices, for example, typically require the user to input location information manually by touching the PDA screen with a pointing-type device. One typical PDA pointing-type device is a “stylus” which is capable of selecting a letter, symbol, graphical pattern, elements of a graphical pattern, or other menu item. A drawback with the use of conventional cellular telephones with Internet capability is the requirement to enter information through use of a numeric keypad for data entry.
A problem with these manual methods is that updates to the location part of the presence information are not done instantly and automatically. The known methods, devices and systems require a significant effort for the user to continually manually update his or her location information as it changes throughout the day. The manual methods are cumbersome, time consuming and prone to error, even in view of advancements in artificial intelligence that reduce manual keystrokes.
The known methods are especially burdensome for mobile users who access instant messaging through a wireless device while traveling. A problem for mobile users is that the ability to manually input information into a wireless device is limited by the inherent characteristics of being mobile. Mobile users who travel, for instance, are restricted in the ability to do manual entry by movement. For the driver of a vehicle, having to do manual entry on a wireless device is a major distraction and may violate legal prohibitions against driving while distracted. Thus, there is also a need to automatically update the location information for an instant messaging user.
Furthermore, due to the inherent limitations of manual input of presence information and the limited text input capability, known methods and systems also do not provide updated and detailed presence information. Another problem contributing to these shortcoming is that known methods require the instant messaging user to determine the location information to be entered as part of the presence information, and to manually update the location information when moving to a new location. For the known methods, unless a first instant messaging user manually enters the location information and location details, a second instant messaging user who has the first user on their address list will not receive the detailed location information for the first user; and will not be instantly updated when the location of the first user changes. Since such manual methods may be burdensome or impossible to perform, an instant messaging user may be presented with incomplete, outdated or inaccurate location information for the presence information of other users on their address list. Therefore, there is a need for methods and systems for an instant messaging user for providing and updating their location information for their presence information instantly, with less distractions, more accurately, and with more useful location information (e.g. addresses, directions, links to maps, etc.).
Another drawback with known methods and systems is that instant messaging services lack services that generate real revenue by providing a beneficial medium for targeted advertising to offset the cost of providing the service. Advertising that is conventionally available to instant messaging users fails to take full advantage of the opportunities for a business to conduct targeting advertising and promotion to wireless instant messaging users. Another problem is the failure to provide a method for a business to take advantage of network marketing to instant messaging users who may not have visited the business but have an instant messaging user on their address list who has visited the business (e.g. a customer). Another drawback of known methods is that adequate information may not be obtained and provided to a business in order to assess the effectiveness of the advertising, promotions, and network marketing of the business.
Instant messaging users represent a potential advertising market for businesses to tap. For known methods, advertisements may appear on the Internet browser or instant messaging screen that is displayed for an instant message user. The effectiveness of this type of advertising is related to the number of potential customers who view the advertising and whether the viewers would be interested in the product or service that the business provides. A drawback with known methods of advertising by a business to instant messaging users is that such methods may be only marginally effective where the users or the other users on their address list have no prior connection, relatedness or familiarity to the business which could attract the users attention. Non-targeted ads may be also an annoyance to an instant messaging user, especially to a wireless instant messaging user who has a small display viewing area on the wireless device. Non-targeted advertising also contributes to advertising clutter and wastes valuable bandwidth.
An instant messaging user may be more likely to trust recommendations received from other user who are on their address list regarding businesses the other users patronize. A user/consumer usually has a certain degree of similarity with their acquaintances, such as ages, location, interest, taste, etc.
Therefore, there is also a need for methods and systems for advertising that use instant messaging and presence information to provide the ability for businesses to send targeted advertisements to wireless customers and other visitors, and to instantly propagate such advertisements to a network of people.